Tehran Says 42 Have Died From Swine Flu During Past Month

Iran’s Health Minister Hassan Ghazizadeh Hashemi says an outbreak of swine flu has killed at least 42 people in the country during the past month, raising the death toll from the H1N1 virus by six in the last 24 hours.

Hashemi said on December 10 that 33 of the deaths occurred in the southeastern province of Kerman, where he said another 600 people with the virus have been hospitalized.

Hashemi said five have died from swine flu in other parts of southeastern and southwestern Iran and that one person died in Karaj, about 30 kilometers west of Tehran.

On December 9, Iran’s Deputy Health Minister Ali Akbar Sayyari told state television the outbreak had killed 36 people and warned it was likely to spread to the western provinces of Kermanshah and East Azerbaijan.

A lawmaker from Kerman, Mohammad Mehdi Zahedi, said on December 9 that the total death toll was 40 in his province and neighboring Sistan-Baluchistan, which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan.